


A Valuable Learning Opportunity

by DrJekyl



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Benezia T'Soni has many assets as a teacher, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Thaia Kallistrate - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 00:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17950181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrJekyl/pseuds/DrJekyl
Summary: A very young Althaia Kallistrate's commando unit gets a once in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train under one of Armali's best biotics instructors, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni.  If Thaia can manage to avoid being a complete disaster for a little while, she might actually learn a thing or two.If.





	A Valuable Learning Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Inquartata (mackillian)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackillian/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Tessellation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14689899) by [Inquartata (mackillian)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackillian/pseuds/Inquartata). 



> Thaia has to get her love of bad jokes from somewhere, right?

“Adadoi _and_ hot sauce?  In an _elafa_?” Kiana said, making a face.  “That’s gross.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Thaia retorted, adding another healthy dollop of her favourite hot sauce to the mound of ingredients in her _elafa_ , more or less out of spite.  She folded the pastry back over onto itself and quickly closed the lid of the hot press, hopefully sealing all of the delicious gooey goodness within.  She did not, however, stick her tongue out at Kiana, no matter how much she wanted to, because Kiana would only hold it up as proof of Thaia’s quote unquote ‘immaturity’.  Like Kiana could talk. She just _thought_ she could because she was an oldest sister and therefore insufferable, but she didn’t even have fifty years on Thaia.

“I don’t need to try it.  I can _smell_ it,”  Kiana said.  She leant against the breakfast bar with her button nose in the air.  

Thaia barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes. “I can smell your gym shoes from here and you don’t hear me complaining about how gross they are.”  She paused, pretending to consider the matter. “Actually, you know what? I think I _will_ complain.  They are _gross_.  I’m pretty sure they’re a biological hazard.  We should send them off for weapons research.”

“Thaia, if you’re comparing your breakfast to shoes,” Shirin, a matron and their heavy weapons specialist said from the other end of the breakfast bar, not looking up from the sporting highlights on her omni, “I’d say she’s got a point.”

“Thank you,” Kiana said, crossing her arms smugly.

“That said,” Shirin continued, gesturing absently with her mug of almost certainly cold tea,  “she’s also got a point about your shoes, Ki. You should ditch them before the Captain notices.”

“What?  No way. They have sentimental value!”

“ _Scent-_ imental value,” Thaia corrected with a flourish befitting such an inspired pun.  Behind her, on the prep counter, the hot press dinged. “Oh, _finally_.”

With Kiana’s eyes upon her, she couldn’t resist making a show of taking the _elafa_ out of the press.  Then, without taking her eyes off of Kiana, she carefully and deliberately crammed the whole thing, bigger than her fist, into her mouth at once.

It became immediately apparent to Thaia that this was a mistake. A huge one.  Her cheeks bulged out near to bursting, the filling burnt her tongue and made her eyes want to water, the hot sauce dribbled down her chin and actually stung on the way down too and, to cap it all off, what little her scalded tongue got of the overall taste sensation wasn’t that great.  But she wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. Least of all Kiana.

“Delicious,” Thaia said, but all that came out was ‘phwwaawamm’ and another dribble of stinging sauce. Still, it had the desired effect: Kiana recoiled.

“Oh, sweet Goddess, I take it back!  You’re not gross, Kallistrate, you’re _disgusting_.  Tell her, Shirin.”

“It is _way_ too early in the morning for me to be dealing with maidens’ varrensh– oh, fuck me, that was a nasty hit.” Shirin craned her neck to get a better view at her omni, brows rising in surprise.  “Well, that’s T’Orras fouled out for the season. And United’s hopes for making finals with her, I’ll bet.  What a fucking idiot.”

That caught the attention of both maidens. If United was out, Armali Arsenal was pretty much guaranteed a top four finish, and a home final.  But before either could inquire further, the door to the mess slid open and Arunhati, the unit’s subcaptain strode in.

“Alright children,” Arun said, snapping to a halt.  “Change of plans for the day. Shuttle in fifteen. Training loadout.” She paused and surveyed her three troops, eyes lingering on Thaia as, with perfect timing, a great big gooey glob of sauce oozed down her chin and dripped onto her shirt.  “ _Spotless_ uniforms.”

Kaina groaned and Thaia would have joined her too if she wasn’t struggling to swallow some small portion of her overlarge mouthful.  Surprise training exercises usually meant that Captain Rosava thought they all were getting complacent in some way, and needed shaking up.  Surprising training exercises on a _rostered rest day_ usually meant they’d fucked up and/or pissed her off somehow.  And because of that, surprise training exercises were never, ever fun.  

However, something about the way Arun gave the order evidently caught Shirin’s ear, because she looked up instead of groaning, cocking her head to the side. “Training loadout?  What’s the goss, boss?”

“Matriarch Benezia’s thinking about taking us on for training.  Biotics. Wants us in for evaluation. Spot opened up in her calendar today.”

There was a pause as the three of them let the news sink in.

“Wait, Matriarch _Benezia_? As in Matriarch Benezia _T’Soni_?”  At Arun’s nod, Kiana whistled, low.  “Holy shit!”

“I didn’t think she was taking more students,” Shirin said.  “I heard her waiting list is fifty years and counting.”

“I didn’t even know she taught martial biotics,” Thaia said, finally managing to swallow enough of her _elafa_ to speak.  “Who the fuck’d the Captain have to finger to pull that off?”

“Don’t know.  Don‘t care. Don't want to be late either.  Get moving.” Arun paused, once again surveying her troops.  “And, Kallistrate? You’re disgusting. Get cleaned up.”

* * *

The fifteen minute flight from HQ to the Matriarch’s estate was more than enough time for nervousness to set in, her stomach churning so much that Thaia actually started to wish she hadn’t had breakfast.  Which was strange and stupid, because a) she’d been _starving_ this morning and b) this wasn’t the first time she’d been sent for advanced training under a matriarch.  Shit, she hadn’t even been with the Guides for twenty years before they’d rotated through Matriarch Nehira.  Admittedly, Nehira hadn’t been well-known outside of militia circles, whereas Benezia T’Soni was a household name throughout the Republics—

Fuck. That was it, wasn’t it?  A T’Soni of _the_ T’Sonis, Matriarch Benezia was one of Armali’s favourite scions: a gifted speaker, writer, scholar, and theologian all rolled up into one neat and ridiculously photogenic package.  She’d gone toe to toe with matriarchs as a _matron_ in public debates and come out on top, and done that often enough that rumour said that the matriarchy had pressured her to make the transition to matriarch early just to stop embarrassing them.  In her _six hundreds_.

There wasn’t a single member of the unit who hadn’t logged on to a debate at least once—even Thaia, who admittedly normally didn’t give a flying fuck about politics—just because Lady Benezia was going to speak. Shit, half of them had at least one of her manuals on siarist practice. And Thaia could vaguely remember her mother, back before... everything... talking about going to some series of lectures or something the then-matron Benezia had given at her university.  But the point was, when she spoke, people listened, because she usually had something good or even just really interesting to say.

And as if all that wasn’t enough talent for one person, she was also, according to Thaia’s hasty extranet dive into her public profile, rated as one of the Republic’s most gifted biotics and best biotic instructors.  Definitely one of its most sought-after, given one of her profile pictures was of her correcting the stance of Arsenal’s current keeper. And now she was considering teaching Thaia’s unit. But she wanted to evaluate them first.  For what? What would she be looking for? Lucen’s Guides weren’t a bad unit by any means—if they were, Thaia sure as fuck wouldn’t have signed on with them—but they were pretty modern, without thousands of years of battle honours to their name.  They didn’t even have a proper unit motto yet.

Damn, Rosava really must have magic fingers.

The shuttle touched down lightly and the two pilots joined the rest of the fifteen-strong squad in disembarking onto an elevated landing pad that offered a spectacular view of of the coastline on one side, and of the Matriarch’s residence on the other.  Thaia wasn’t entirely sure that the word ‘residence’ did it justice, though. ‘Estate’ honestly seemed a better fit, with high walls—not just for show but actual defensive ones—and a footprint that would have easily held a couple of city blocks. Most of the grounds were given over to gardens and the odd water feature, with what looked like the main house—the _mansion_ —in the centre of it, supported by a number of outbuildings, including a barracks and a training complex.  Thaia tried and failed to come up with a credit value for it. Land was in such high demand in Armali that a parcel this size could only possibly have been inherited.  If it’d been bought, it’d have been subdivided pretty much on day one.

Rosava Sobolis, Captain of Lucen’s Guides and a commando of over four hundred years, was waiting for them on the landing pad.  She was also clearly in a Mood. That much was evident to Thaia as she and the rest of the unit formed up for a final inspection, standing at parade rest while Rosava and Arun prowled between them, checking the shine of boots and fit of buckles and angle of collars.  Thaia, blessedly at the back, passed muster with a quick tweak of her pistol holster and a pointed reminder to stand up straight with her shoulders back. Finally, Arun fell into formation with the rest of them, and Rosava returned to the front.

“Matriarch Benezia,” Rosava said, “asked the Militia Council to nominate a unit to train alongside her protective detail for the next five years.  The Council believes that we will be a good fit, but the Matriarch would like to assess us before moving forward. This is an unexpected and rare opportunity.” She looked from face to face to face, Thaia’s included.  “I don’t know what she’s looking for, so mind your manners and remember your fundamentals and I know you’ll do me proud.”

But what she _really_ said at the end—and what Thaia definitely heard—was ‘Kallistrate, don’t you dare fuck this up for everyone.’  Mind her manners? Sure, manners she could do. Probably. Just excise half of the words from her normal vocabulary and keep her mouth shut the rest of the time and she’d be fine.  But remembering the basics? She—as the entire squad enjoyed reminding her on a regular basis—was still learning the basics.   _Learning_.  As in: had not yet mastered.  As in: was still some considerable distance away from mastery.  And now she was going to have to show off that lack of learning in front of one of the Republic’s most prominent voices.

Her palms began to sweat, but she didn’t dare wipe them on her leathers.

Thaia felt the the light biotic ping of another commando approaching seconds before three huntresses ascended the stairs to the top of the landing pad, their leathers bearing a stylised version of the T’Soni crest.  Two stopped at the top, one either side of the stairs, while the third, bearing captain’s stripes of her own, approached Rosava. The other Captain held out her hand towards Rosava with a small biotic flare; Rosava mirrored the gesture, sealing the traditional welcome with clasped hands and the mingling of energy.

“Captain Rosava,” the other Captain said, smiling and releasing her hand.  She looked surprisingly young for her rank, maybe only a few decades into matronhood. And that immediately seemed odd to Thaia. Matriarch Benezia could probably have her pick of any commando in Armali, if not all of Thessia, to captain her guard. She could probably have another fucking matriarch of she wanted. An older one.  Multiple ones. “Thank you for coming at such short notice.”

“The thanks is ours.  We’re honoured to be here,” Rosava said, then turned to direct her attention to back the unit.  “Guides, this is Captain Shiala, commander of the Matriarch’s personal guard. Obey her orders as you would my own while we are here.”

“Yes, Captain!” Thaia chorused along with the other Guides.

“Thank you, and be welcome in our home,” Captain Shiala said, inclining her head towards the unit.  “Now, please, follow me. The Matriarch's schedule is very tight today, and we have little time to dally.”

Captain Shiala set a brisk pace down the stairs, away from the landing pad and deep into the grounds, towards the main house. Rather than focusing on what awaited once they reached their destination, Thaia tried to memorize the layout of the place, including identifying obstacles to infiltration.

There were a _lot_.  

Some were decidedly low-tech solutions that passed as just another part of the gardens, like the wide bands of noisy gravel and the thickets of thorny undergrowth. The high-tech measures—motion sensors, biotic deflectors and full spectrum scanners— _also_ looked like just another part of the garden, and probably wouldn’t have been noticeable at all if you didn’t know exactly what to look for.  The place was _really_ well-defended, a point driven home by the other two commandos from the ‘welcoming’ party following silently behind them, ready to intercept and redirect anyone straying from the path.

The training complex turned out to be right next to the barracks, itself set just off from the main house.  Three different buildings from three different eras, the squat, ancient stone of the barracks was a clear contrast to the weightless glass and steel arch and rise of the main house.  The indoor component of training complex worked as a kind of visual bridge between them, its thick stone walls punctuated by modern floor-to-ceiling windows, and topped by a gently sweeping roof. Covered in lush greenery, the roof swooped down towards the grassy, tree-ringed field that served as the outdoor component of the complex.

The overall effect was really quite nice.  And probably should have been soothing. But each step just made Thaia’s palms sweat even more. 

_Don’t you dare fuck this up, Kallistrate.  This is a once in a lifetime chance. Don’t you dare fuck this up._

They stopped briefly at the barracks’ armoury where they were politely but firmly required to hand over their weapons.  Thaia didn’t entirely see the point, given that a) they were running a training loadout so blanks all around b) they were commandos and all armed by nature and c) Matriarch Benezia herself could probably put them all on their asses just by thinking about it.  But Thaia supposed the job of a unit like Captain Shiala’s was to not take any risks with the life of their Matriarch. Which probably meant they spent a lot of time sitting around and thinking about things that could go wrong and then planning for them and developing countermeasures and then testing those countermeasures and drilling and then more thinking and planning and testing, all of which in an endless cycle that, combined with literal guard duty, sounded so tedious that Thaia, given a choice of signing on with that kind of unit and not being a commando, would have very definitely gone the Not Being a Commando option.

After the armoury visit, they assembled on a small paved area beside the entrance to the indoor gym, and Captain Shiala led them through a quick set of limbering and biotic warm-up exercises.  At the end, another of the T’Soni commandos appeared and handed her a datapad.

Captain Shiala glanced at it. “The Matriarch will be evaluating you individually and then as a group,” she said, and gestured towards a door leading into the indoor ground.  “Please head inside when your name is called. Althaia Kallistrate.”

It took a second for it to register.  And then another for Thaia to bite her tongue before her initial, instinctual reply of ‘What? Me? First? Are you _fucking kidding_ me?!’ escaped.  And then another because, no, _really_ , she couldn’t be the Matriarch’s first impression of the Guides, that was the absolute _worst_ idea _anyone_ had ever had because she was literally their newest and youngest member and really they should send someone experienced and with really really sound fundamentals and definitely not Thaia who—

“Kallistrate!”  Arun appeared beside Thaia, giving her a none-to-gentle prod.  “Get your ass moving.”

Goddess, everyone was staring at her.  

Everyone.  

Even the T’Soni commandos.

What a _great_ first impression.  She suppressed a groan, drew herself up straight and marched through the door, trying to ignore the feeling of eyes upon her, a job made a bit easier when the opaque glass panel slid closed behind her.

The gym, while newer than the one the Guides usually used, turned out to be a biotics training room like almost any other: high ceilings, sturdy walls, lots of dampeners and padding _everywhere_ , and dotted with an assortment of targets and weights of various sizes and placements.  The only thing of particular note about it was its sole occupant: a tall, curvaceous matriarch in loose black pants and a matching sleeveless compression top.  Said top was doing a frankly heroic job of containing a pair of breasts of the sort that had once featured prominently in Thaia’s adolescent fantasies. And, it had to be be said, post-adolescent fantasies.  And artwork of the same ages. And several of her more current fantasies as well. _Goddess_ , wouldn’t she just _love_ to press her face—

Thaia felt her face heat.  Oh no. Oh no no no. Not _now_.  Goddess, you’d think she was forty again.  She was going to catch enough shit from the others as it was.

At least the Matriarch seemed to be immersed in her omni and was not looking Thaia’s way.  That gave her a few precious moments to collect herself. Breathe. Relax. Focus. She could do this.  She _could_.  Boobs were boobs and everyone had them.  Some people even had really large and soft-looking—no, _stop_.  Boobs were boobs.  Boobs were boobs and matriarchs were just people like everyone else.  Old people. She knew several. Shit, Great Aunty Tiryns was a matriarch, and she mainly just wanted to nap these days.

Thaia took a deep breath to steady herself, squared her shoulders, stepped forward purposefully, and immediately stumbled over absolutely nothing she could see but her own two feet.  Her blush returned full-force and she scrambled back fully upright as the Matriarch turned towards the source of the noise. She had a full set of siarist facial tattoos— _goddess_ those had to have hurt— _incredible_ cheekbones and gunmetal grey eyes.  Feeling those eyes focused upon her, assessing her with a glance, like they were seeing straight through her, Thaia was suddenly very, very aware that people _still_ called her gangly even though she was a full adult and could vote and everything. And that, as much as her dad and everyone else said she’d grow properly into her height eventually, right now her hands looked way too big for her body and no amount of gym time had put the muscle on her arms and shoulders that she’d wanted and hoped would help even it out.  And that Matriarch Benezia was just as tall as Thaia was but could in _no_ way be described as gangly.  Statuesque, maybe. Stunning, definitely.  But not gangly. Gangly was a word that belonged to maidens who were like Thaia: a hundred and change and still getting teased for having knobbly knees.

“Althaia Kallistrate?” The Matriarch’s voice was warm, and lighter than Thaia had expected from hearing her debate.  She didn’t move like Thaia expected her too either, walking towards Thaia with something strangely like and yet entirely unlike the swagger commandos invariably developed, a way of moving and holding yourself that said, to anyone who cared to look, that you were the most powerful and dangerous person in the room, and knew it. And Thaia knew, with ten thousand percent certainty, that Matriarch Benezia could have Thaia’s entire unit for breakfast if she wanted to.  Probably as an appetizer. And that Thaia, on a very personal level, would probably welcome it. And ask for another round.

Goddess, did her brain have to be her own worst enemy _all_ the time?

“Yes, Matriarch,” Thaia said, pulling herself smartly to attention.  What she desperately hoped looked like smart attention. “Of Lucen’s Guides,” she added, saluted, and mentally kicked herself.  Then upgraded that to ‘wished she was dead’ when Matriarch Benezia’s lips quirked upwards, just for a second, in amusement.

“There’s no need to salute, huntress,” the Matriarch said and smiled for real this time, and Thaia’s mouth went dry.  Goddess, that _smile._  Lips like that ought to be illegal. Especially with dark lipstick adding just a hint of gloss to them, just like someone had—stop it _stop it stopit_.  “I’m no commando.”

“Yes, Matriarch,” Thaia said, and then, in a stroke of genius, carefully re-focused her attention on a spot just above and to the right of the Matriarch’s shoulder, and most definitely not on her lips or her breasts or her arms or her hips or eyes or anything about her.  Maybe—just _maybe_ —if Thaia stood absolutely still and didn’t say another word and didn’t ever look away from the wall again, she’d get through this without completely disgracing herself.  It was going to take a supreme act of will and heroic focus but, for honour and for the Guides and for her own ability to not wake up with screaming nightmares about this moment every night for the rest of her life, she’d try.

“I understand today was your day of leisure,” the Matriarch said.  “Thank you for interrupting it to indulge me.”

“My honour, Matriarch.”  

The padding on the far wall was clean and neat but clearly used, scored with scuff marks and small tears.  Fairly new, too. But then again, the gym itself didn’t look like it could be more than a century old.

“Captain Rosava tells me you’re the Guides’ youngest member?” the Matriarch said.  Goddess, she was very close now. Close enough that Thaia could reach out and touch her if she wanted to and didn’t know with every single cell of her body that doing so would be the single dumbest idea she’d ever had since she’d tried to sneak onto the pitch after an Arsenal training session to get the new lock’s autograph and nearly concussed her instead.   “And newest too?”

Thaia nodded.  There were sixteen—no, eighteen square panels of padding per frame of wall.  Each frame was one story, and looked to be about a meter wide. Three stories here, two at the far end.  If there were—

“How have you found them so far?”

Shit.  She was going to have to talk.   _Shit_.

“Good, Matriarch,” she said, pleased and relieved when the words came out right, without squeaking or stammering.  Feeling a bit more daring, she added: “I’m learning a lot.”

“I’m sure you are.  Your Captain seems a fine commando and a good leader.  Well-regarded by her peers.”

Rosava was a good leader, really, Thaia thought.   _Way_ too fond of PT and early morning starts for Thaia’s liking and there were hanar with better senses of humour, but Rosava was good at what she did.  She listened to everyone’s input and ideas, even if she didn’t use them, and made a point of spending time training one-on-one with every member of the unit at least once a week.  And she was fair when it came to dishing out praise and punishments alike.

So Thaia nodded her agreement, and returned her focus resolutely to the wall.  Right. Eighteen panels per frame. Five, ten, twenty frames for a third of the wall, so, an overall length of sixty meters.  No, she hadn’t counted the windows. They were a frame each, and spaced after every fourth padded frame.

Thaia could hear the low thrum of biotic dampeners in the silence.  The Matriarch was watching her.

“Well, let’s get started, shall we?” the Matriarch said brightly.  “Today I want to get a sense of your general abilities and power levels, and what training you’ve had before.”

Another pause.

Thaia belatedly realised that the Matriarch was expecting an acknowledgement.“Yes, Matriarch.”

“Let’s start with a lift and a throw, please,” she said, and moved towards the nearest array of weights.  After a second of indecision, Thaia followed her, and followed her hand as she gestured towards a target on the opposite wall.  “A weight you feel _comfortable_ with, not one you think will impress me.”

That last sentence held a note of warning, and Thaia immediately found herself wondering what had happened to the people who’d set out to impress Matriarch Benezia before and failed.  Because Thaia was fairly certain that she would fail if she did try to impress the Matriarch. And she couldn’t afford to fail, because this was a once in a lifetime chance and Rosava wouldn’t be mad she’d screwed up but she’d be _disappointed_ in that way she had that made you feel like you should have just stayed at home with your parents and never even tried anything in your entire life.  

The rest of the unit, though, would be pissed.  And justifiably so.

Okay, so not an impressive weight.  But a respectable one. Something she was comfortable with.  The problem was that she was not comfortable with fine control.  And especially not when she her every move was being watched, intently, by an unfairly attractive matriarch.

She picked medium weight from the pile weighted balls, lighter than her usual, and settled into her throwing stance.  She could do this. She could.  Lift something, throw it at a fucking target? It was the world’s most basic skyball move.  She’d done it a million times before. So why, when she reached out with her biotics to envelope the weight, did the field wobble unstably?

“Check your feet,” the Matriarch said, startling Thaia so much that the weight dropped with a dull _thud_ and she blushed.  Again. Goddess, she hadn’t even noticed her moving closer. “Shoulder width is best.”

Thaia nodded mutely, too embarrassed to even think about speaking, fixed her feet, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if it would help.

Relax, Kallistrate.  Breathe. You can do this.  You’ve done it a thousand times before.  You are a grown-ass asari and a commando and goddess she even _smells_ nice.

The weight rose more easily this time, when she opened her eyes, but when she flung out her hand, sending the weight rocketing away from her, it didn’t go towards the target as planned.

It went towards one of the windows further down the wall.

“Shit!”

Acting on pure reflex, she threw out a stasis to stop it, only to belatedly realise that this was the worst possible move imaginable, proven by the detonation that followed, dark energy exploding outwards.  And, because her detonations were unusually strong, that explosion of dark energy sent the weight exploding right along with it, the only thing between them and shards of shrapnel the Matriarch’s sudden barrier.  Through it, across the way, Thaia could see that the window stood perfectly unharmed beneath a shimmering shield of its own.

Of _course_ it was shielded.  This was a _gym_.  A gym for training _biotics_.  You could probably throw a fully armoured elcor at the window and have it bounce right off.

The Matriarch’s barrier dropped, and there was another long moment of silence.  Thaia stared at her feet, feeling more ill by the second.

This was it.  She was dead. She had fucked up the galaxy’s simplest biotics exercise, and the Guides were going to lose out on a once-in-a-lifetime training opportunity because of her.  Goddess, she should just walk straight out of here, and keep walking until she got to a spaceport, get into the first available ship and just go drink herself to death in the Terminus somewhere.  Just quit, right here and now, because she obviously didn’t have what it took—

“Althaia?” A pause. “Thaia, is it?”

Oh sweet merciful Athame, take me now with you into the darkness between stars.

“Yes, Matriarch?” she managed.

“May I ask you something?”

“Of course, Matriarch.”

“What did the siari priestess say to the _elafa_ vendor?”

Thaia blinked, head jerking back up, at first certain she’d misheard, then certain she’d somehow left bits of her breakfast on her uniform, then completely _un_ certain because that sounded altogether too much like the setup for a joke.

“I—what?  I don’t...” she stammered before the ritual response fell out of her mouth: “I don’t know, what _did_ the siari priestess say to the _elafa_ vendor?“

The Matriarch gave her a long, evaluating look before she said, with complete earnestness: “Make me one with everything.”

Thaia blinked.  It _had_ been the setup of a joke.  It had been the setup of a really, really _bad_ joke, and an ugly snort of laughter escaped Thaia before she could stop it.

“Oh my sweet _goddess_ , that is the _worst_ joke I’ve ever heard,” she groaned.

“Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near the worst joke I’ve ever heard,” Benezia said wryly.

Thaia looked at her in abject horror.“You know one that’s _worse_!?”

“Several, actually.”  She gave Thaia a look that was simultaneously appraising and conspiratorial.  “I’d be more than happy to tell you them. If you like.”

“What?  No! Goddess, I came here for training, not torture!”

“Are you sure?  They do say that misery shared is misery halved.” Benezia was smiling again.  “That being the case, you would be relieving me of a great deal of it.”

“ _Compounded_ , Matriarch,” Thaia corrected.  “Misery _compounded_.”  And then she realised what she’d said and to whom, and reflexively clasped her hands over her mouth.  

But Benezia, far from being offended at being corrected by a maiden barely old enough to call herself one, just laughed.  

She had an unfairly nice laugh, Thaia realised.  To go along with her unfairly nice smile. And her unfairly huge—stopitstopit _stopit_.

“Quite right.  But sometimes shared hardship binds us together more strongly than shared joy.  And the telling of some of some of the ‘jokes’ I know is as traumatic for the speaker as the listener.”  She paused meaningfully. “Are you _sure_ I can’t persuade you?”

“Very sure, thank you.   _Unbelievably_ sure.  Surer than I have ever been about anything ever in my life.”

Benezia laughed again.  “So noted. Then perhaps we should try the lift and throw combination again instead..?  A slightly heavier weight this time, I think.”

Thaia nodded, got herself back into position - feet _shoulder_ width apart, and almost as quickly found her heart hammering in her chest again.  She’d been given a reprieve, sure, but-

“Thaia,” there was a note of warning in the Matriarch’s voice this time, “I wasn’t lying when I said I knew more jokes. Oh! I could tell you the one about the elcor who-”

Dead certain that the Matriarch wasn’t bluffing, and equally sure she didn’t want to hear another joke of that calibre, Thaia found that her focus abruptly narrowed to the task at hand.  The sequence of gestures for the lift came without her having to think about it, and she sent the weight sailing into the dead centre of the target with a flick of her outstretched hand.

“Excellent,” Benezia beamed, making a note in her omni.   “How about a stasis? Perhaps _without_ a detonation, this time?”

The next few minutes passed in a blur of activity, Benezia having her demonstrate everything from a warp to a charge to an a-field, towards the end of the session getting into techniques Thaia had only heard of (and some she hadn’t) and had to admit she couldn’t do.  The Matriarch even only had to threaten Thaia with ‘jokes’ a couple of times more before she was done and being invited to grab a drink from the cooler half-hidden by the door. She took an energy drink and slammed half of it down in one go while Benezia made another set of notes in her omni before closing it down.  

At that point, Thaia decided to press her luck.“So, um.  Did I pass?”

“It wasn’t a pass or fail exercise, Thaia.  I need to see what your skills and strengths are, and if there are areas that I could help you with.”  Before Thaia could ask the obvious follow-up question, Benezia continued, “Yes. You have a great deal of raw power, but you yourself know it needs refinement.  Focus, though, is where I think we should start. Clarity of mind and purpose. For now, I’ll send you some material to read and consider. Please do so before we next meet, and come back to me with any questions in the meantime.”

‘We next meet’?  That sounded—

“Does... does this mean you’re taking us on?”

“I’ve only seen one member of your unit, Thaia,” she said, “and not seen you as a group.  After that, I shall decide. But if I don’t take the Guides on, it won’t have been because of you.  And it certainly won’t mean we can’t make time to discuss what you’ve read. Now, please go and tell Shiala to send the next one through.”

Thaia lobbed the empty drink box in the bin and drew herself back up smartly.“Yes, Matriarch!”

“Oh, and Thaia?  I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell the others what happened with your first try,” Benezia said.  “Because Shiala was dead set against me conducting training one-on-one in the unlikely event that one of you turned out to be an assassin, and I will _never_ hear the end of it if she thinks something even slightly dangerous had happened.  As far as we’re both concerned, nothing at all out of the ordinary occurred. Understood?”

“Understood,” she agreed, and headed back outside, surprised to discover that not even fifteen minutes had passed.  She was even more surprised that Kiana was already waiting to go in, and looking decidedly grey. She was nervous too, Thaia realised.  Possibly as badly as Thaia had been going in. Actually, maybe even worse: at least Thaia hadn’t had an extra fifteen minutes to stew on it.

“You’ll be fine,” Thaia murmured, catching Ki’s arm briefly as she moved to go past her and in.  “She’s really nice. Just relax and, for the love of the goddess, don’t let her tell you any jokes.”


End file.
